Young Adults Navigating European Labour Markets

Abstract

Across Europe young people face considerable challenge and uncertainty in entering the labour market and securing employment as a basis for establishing themselves as independent adults (see Chapters 1 and 3). Blossfeld et al. (2005) contend that the unprecedented level of structural uncertainty that globalisation processes generate in contemporary societies have a particularly strong impact on young people, and that the increased labour market uncertainties that they experience affect other parts of their lives. The extent and form of these uncertainties are shaped by national institutional differences and the familiar contours of socio-economic stratification, including gender, education and ethnic-minority status. Nonetheless, the general picture is that young people enter labour markets in which the opportunities for full-time, secure and decently paid employment have been eroded by high rates of unemployment, temporary and/or involuntary part-time contracts and low pay.